Yeah he was labeled as having a game similar to a young Todd Bertuzzi. Then we actually got to see him. No hands, no physicality, no speed, no hockey smarts, no edge, nothing.

1. He played 5 games with the Penguins this season. He contributed to more goals than Boychuk so far, fwiw. 2. The vast majority of his NHL games have come on the 4th line.3. In the AHL, he's scored @ .35 goals per game. 4. He averaged as many hits per game on the 4th line last year as Adams and Cooke.5. For WBS in the playoffs last year, he upped his game and improved his regular season scoring pace.

In the spirit of Draftnik, those are facts. No hands? No physicality? No hockey smarts? The facts tell a different story. My assessment is that he has no confidence. The fault for that surely lies at his feet as much as it does at the teams', but regardless, it was obvious he wasn't going to get a chance here. So good luck to him in Winnipeg.

This argument will be revisited in about 1 year when we check in on the season Tangradi is having with them, when he's finally turned 24, which is statistically when his type of player "finds their game." Crow will be served. But to whom?

You're in the bag for this guy, and its hilarious that you're couching it "in the spirit of Draftnik, those are facts." Because: nope.

1. Yes, Boychuk has played 7 games with the Pens and has zero goals. Tangradi played 45 games and scored one goal. Advantage Tangradi?

2. I guess. I somewhat agree that the hook was maybe a bit early this season. I do know that when he played with Malkin, he produced little. In 2010-2011, the forward he played the most with in those 15 games was Malkin (31.1% of the time). Last year it was Adams (49%). This year it was Neal (48%) and Malkin (45%). I don't know about "vast majority", but whatever, point Tangradi I suppose.

3. What a beast.

4. This one. This is my favorite. When analyzing a prospect who is projected to be a goal-scoring power forward, a quality metric is definitely "how many hits per game does he average in comparison to career fourth liner/PKer Craig Adams and a career third-liner and PKer/pest Matt Cooke." Hits are one of the worst counting stats to begin with. Adams and Cooke also log plenty of PK minutes, offering more chances for hits, given that we don't possess the puck during those periods. Tangradi was the most sheltered player on the team last year in terms of offensive zone starts and qual of competition, and plays no PK.

5. Nice. Upped his game. From .83 PPG to .90 PPG (without even noting that the sample size for the latter is 10 games).

Here's some other cool facts: Tangradi got 43 seconds of PPTOI/G last year. The players immediately in front of him in that statistic were Cooke (1:11) and Despres (1:06). Cooke put up 1G/5A and Despres 0G/1A. Tangradi: 0G/0A.

Another cool fact: He's 24 now. Not 23. So next year, when you revisit it, make sure to change your template to when he "finally" turns 25.

Reasonable Conclusion: Tangradi, at this stage, can best be described as a very good AHL player, but not quite good enough to make an impact in the NHL. His "hands" in the AHL don't translate to NHL goalies, who are light years ahead of those in the AHL, nor NHL defensemen who are bigger, faster, and take away space much more quickly. There is a slight chance that perhaps he wasn't given enough time on a scoring line and didn't fit this team/system and could reach his alleged potential elsewhere. I hope he does, but it's hard to suggest at this point that he's more likely to succeed in the NHL than he is to wash out.

Your conclusion: he just needs "confidence."

The fact that you were calling people "ignorant" in the other thread for describing him as possessing little to no trade value -- and then he gets traded for the least valuable asset short of an outright release -- sums it up.

Yeah he was labeled as having a game similar to a young Todd Bertuzzi. Then we actually got to see him. No hands, no physicality, no speed, no hockey smarts, no edge, nothing.

1. He played 5 games with the Penguins this season. He contributed to more goals than Boychuk so far, fwiw. 2. The vast majority of his NHL games have come on the 4th line.3. In the AHL, he's scored @ .35 goals per game. 4. He averaged as many hits per game on the 4th line last year as Adams and Cooke.5. For WBS in the playoffs last year, he upped his game and improved his regular season scoring pace.

In the spirit of Draftnik, those are facts. No hands? No physicality? No hockey smarts? The facts tell a different story. My assessment is that he has no confidence. The fault for that surely lies at his feet as much as it does at the teams', but regardless, it was obvious he wasn't going to get a chance here. So good luck to him in Winnipeg.

This argument will be revisited in about 1 year when we check in on the season Tangradi is having with them, when he's finally turned 24, which is statistically when his type of player "finds their game." Crow will be served. But to whom?

No points this season, hasn't scored an NHL goal since the opening week of the 2010-11 season (and yes, that stat is somewhat diluted by his AHL service).

He had his chance on the Malkin/Neal line and looked out of place. For somebody who is 6' 4", he plays like he's 5' 9". Maybe his game doesn't translate to the NHL, since it seemed like he was a step slower than the rest of the Malkin/Neal line. Maybe it's a mental thing that has to do with what happened after the Gillies incident. I'm not really sure. But a former can't-miss prospect who is on pace for 2 career goals over 82 games isn't gonna get you much, especially when said player is a pressbox fixture. 2 goals in 82 games is what you'd expect from Billy Tibbetts, not from a 2nd round pick who couldn't find his game in the NHL, or at least on this team.

DesertPenguin wrote:Meh. I'm sad he didn't pan out, but it was time to make a choice between Tangradi and Boychuk, and Boychuk won.

The key here is Ray has reduced the roster down to 22. He has an open position. Either Bennett is coming up soon, or he is preparing to bring in a player. Otherwise the roster clearing move wasn't necessary, when you could have kept him as a trade throw in instead.

The problem with Tangradi was that he was over-hyped from the start. He was a 2nd round pick by Anaheim, 42nd overall, but the consensus was that Anaheim over-reached for him. He was the 93rd ranked skater in the final 2007 rankings http://cdn.nhl.com/futures/cssrankings/2007final/07_final_naskaters_num.pdf. The Pens were intrigued by his size and thought they could possibly mold him into a power forward. Obivously, that was not the case. (FYI, Luca Caputi was ranked 62nd the same year, and he was a 4th round, 111th overall pick by the Pens....and Luca is now in the ANA system).

I never knew this info until last night....one of the Pens blog sites had posted something similar after he was traded. They had also mentioned "Tangradi needed to put down the video games" in the summer, ie, he wasn't doing what he really needed to improve in the summer, didn't seem to have the drive to improve. Man, I wish I could find the link to the blog site that had all this.

I always got the impression that ET was overhyped. I remember someone here hyping him as the centerpiece of that deal and wondering to myself why he would be sent away before playing a single pro game if that were the case. He then got hyped over caputi and I couldn't see why. I didn't know any better and i'm not saying I did, but I didn't see any reason for there to be any additional excitement(I liked what little I saw from Caputi and had not seen ET). What you just posted makes a lost of sense looking back.

Here’s the problem. The Penguins really don’t have the time or the roster space for that kind of project. Maybe the Jets do. The Penguins have a window, when Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are in their primes, to compete for championships.

In game 2 vs. NYR, he missed Geno in the slot with a pass I made routinely in the 7th grade. I'd had enough then. I was thinking Geno should go back to the bench and punch DB in the throat for putting that scrub on his line.

johnnews wrote:In game 2 vs. NYR, he missed Geno in the slot with a pass I made routinely in the 7th grade. I'd had enough then. I was thinking Geno should go back to the bench and punch DB in the throat for putting that scrub on his line.

Perhaps he'll find success in WPG. It wasn't happening here.

I like the use of "punch in the throat". I think this should be the new standard physical manifestation of "how dare you?".

joe icepick wrote:He says he never got a chance with the Pens, I don't think he's going to pan out.

He never showed he deserved much more of a chance either. His skills scream career AHLer at this point. Fairly bad skating, poor awareness, lack of intensity, not so good hands......don't see much of a NHL future for him. Not skilled enough for top-6 and not intense and hard working enough for the bottom-6.

MarioLives wrote:Wow it is like this guy spit on you and took your girlfriends. Never seen so much happiness over a player being basically let go. I never had an opinion either way on him but I do know he was never given a fair chance on the top 6 for an extended period. Like Boychuck is getting. Hard giving up on an early twenties big body..... I do know that. Especially with the excitement we all had when he was originally brought here.

It's like people are happy that one of our key prospects for many years didn't pan out. That makes no sense to me. I suppose you can chalk it up to message-board vindication.

People are happy that a failed experiment is over. Everyone hoped he'd pan out. He didn't.

On what he’s been told about his opportunity with the Jets:I’ve been told that it is an opportunity. I think I’m going to start with (Kyle Wellwood) and (Olli Jokinen) there on the left side. I’m just looking forward to it. It’s up to me if I stay there or not. That’s an opportunity I feel like I haven’t been given in the past, so I’m looking forward to it.

On what he’s been told about his opportunity with the Jets:I’ve been told that it is an opportunity. I think I’m going to start with (Kyle Wellwood) and (Olli Jokinen) there on the left side. I’m just looking forward to it. It’s up to me if I stay there or not. That’s an opportunity I feel like I haven’t been given in the past, so I’m looking forward to it.

Anytime the Penguins arrive at a hotel on the road, all their keys are laid out on a table by the hotel staff. So the players, coaches, staff and media look for their names and grab their keys off the table – no big deal.

But when the players got to the hotel in Winnipeg, there was a key on the table marked “Tangradi.” The other players assumed that since the trip was planned in advance that Bennett, who was recalled that morning, didn’t have a room (he actually did have a room, but no one noticed his key). So the players handed Bennett the room key marked “Tangradi” and told him to take that room.

So Bennett, the wide-eyed rookie, headed up to “his” room. But there was a surprise awaiting him. After putting in his key and opening the door he found out someone was already in his room: Eric Tangradi.

As it turns out the Jets put Tangradi in the same hotel until he finds a place in the city. The Penguins did have a room for Bennett, but he didn’t see his key. The hotel put Tangradi’s room key out on the table going by the old list. Thus, a friendly face-to-face encounter by former teammates.

Needless to say, Bennett went back down to the front desk and grabbed his room key. No word yet if this time he opened the door to see Ben Lovejoy.

mikey287 wrote:Flip side of that coin, not saying I agree or disagree, but this isn't the first Penguin to voice similar sentiment about his time here...

Yeah, I think the "opportunity" comment is more in regards to what he said later, per Molinari

@MolinariPGTangradi: "Sometimes, I felt like I had a short leash out there (with the Penguins). I felt like I was playing just not to make a mistake."

As you alluded to, Strait said pretty much the exact same thing.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't see a future for either of them with the Pens (by the time we let them go), but that's really not how you handle young players that you hope to build their confidence and improve.